Edward Skloot is Executive Director of the Surdna Foundation, a family foundation headquartered in New York City. Its assets are approximately $725 million and in 2004-05 grantmaking will exceed $30 million. Surdna makes grants in five fields; the environment, neighborhood revitalization, youth organizing, arts and nonprofit sector issues.

Surdna was established in 1917 and is today one of the country’s 75 largest foundations. The Foundation has earned a national reputation for entrepreneurial grantmaking, collaborative approaches with other funders and grantees, and aggressive solution-finding to highly complex problems.

Currently, Mr. Skloot serves on the board of directors of Independent Sector and is a member of its Panel on the Nonprofit Sector. Also, he serves as a board member of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a group of venture capitalists helping youth-serving organizations in the Washington, DC region and of the advisory board of The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit consulting firm affiliated with Bain and Co. He recently completed a four-year term on the board of Consumer’s Union (publisher of Consumer Reports).

Mr. Skloot has written and spoken widely on the subjects of nonprofit management, social venturing and sectoral leadership. (See www.Surdna.org for a selection of speeches and articles). He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.